Author: Tony Grist
I will be complicating risk and rationality in The Standard Model of Explaining the Irrationality of Defensive Gun Ownership at the UConn ARMS Center’s “On Target” lunch and learn webinar next Tuesday, 2/11. Please join me! Info and registration here. NOTE ON SUPPORT Putting out materials like this is part of my mission to educate people and enrich conversations about guns. I have never pay-walled my work, so it is free to you. But the work is not free to me. If you would like to support my efforts, please consider the following: Please like and share my blog posts…
I have been writing regularly on this blog since May 2012. During that time, I have posted over 1,000 times, covering every aspect of my journey inside America’s gun culture. Much of my focus has been on what I call, following Michael Bane, “Gun Culture 2.0” — the defensive core of contemporary gun culture in the U.S. The thinking I have done here has led to innumerable essays, articles, book chapters, podcasts, media appearances, videos, and two books, Concealed Carry Revolution and Gun Curious. I have also found a small but intelligent community of readers through this blog, whose support…
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The Washington Post article on trans gun owners that I commented for in January is now out and I think the author, Hallie Lieberman, did a fine job. Here is a Washington Post gift link to the article so you can decide for yourself. I was pleased that my point captured in the title of this and the original post made it in the story: “What’s happening today among trans people is in the tradition of people demanding their rights and saying that they’re willing to defend those rights with force if necessary,” Yamane said. As a reminder, I am…
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I’ve been busy doing other things — like starting a “Light Over Heat” Substack to replace this blog (no paywall, subscribe here) — so I haven’t put much throught into this year’s National Rifle Association’s annual meetings and exhibits. The event will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta from April 24-27. Details are here. An email reminding me to register for a media credential got the ball rolling. My request is in and I’ve booked my travel, arriving Thursday and departing Monday. I am looking forward to seeing some old friends there and making some new…
One week from today, I will be participating in a conference on my home campus at Wake Forest University called “A Gun is Not Fun: Strategies to Keep Children Safe from Gun Violence.” I’m excited to have a voice in this conversation. I posted some preliminary thoughts on my newly established Light Over Heat Substack, and also reposted my 2022 essay “What We Talk Abut When We Talk About ‘Gun Safety’” there. A description of and registration information for the event follows. I don’t believe it will be recorded, but if you are near Wake Forest University next Monday, March…
I don’t attend the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting and exhibits every year, but every time I attend I learn a great deal about American gun culture. I am attending the meetings in Atlanta this year. It is the first time I will have attended the NRAAM in back-to-back years, having previously attended in 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2024. This post lists all of my blog posts on the NRA annual meeting and exhibits (updated 18 April 2025). 2024 at the KAY BAILEY HUTCHINSON CONVENTION CENTER IN DALLAS, TEXAS What The Professor Learned in His Surprising Journey Inside Gun…
Author’s Note: I’m not bringing back this blog (find me on Substack), but I recently published a short essay that is too important not to mention. I shot a gun for the first time in January 2011. On that day, I began a personal and sociological journey into America’s gun culture that culminated in the June 2024 publication of my book, Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside America’s Gun Culture. Trying to fit more than a decade’s observations in a single book was difficult. Harder still was to write a TL:DR for those for whom a book is…
Cumulative list of significant products of my work on American gun culture: (28) “Guns in America: A liberal gun-owning sociologist offers 5 observations to understand America’s culture of firearms,” The Conversation, 1 May 2025. (27) “Guns are not just for conservative white men,” The Hill, 9 February 2025. (26) “The Agony (and Ecstasy) of Liberal Gun Ownership,” Keynote Address to the Liberal Gun Club National Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada, 19 October 2024. (25) Gun Curious: A Liberal Professor’s Surprising Journey Inside America’s Gun Culture (Jefferson, NC: Exposit Books, 2024). (24) “What the Professor Learned in His Surprising Journey Inside American…